Friday, February 20, 2009

Vegetable Couscous

Vegetable Couscous is our favorite new dish to make for a quick healthy dinner. Couscous cooks so quickly it still doesn't seem quite real to me yet. Not only does it cook in 5 minutes instead of the 20 minutes needed for rice, but it is much healthier too as it has more fiber. (I just can't do brown rice!) 1 cup of cooked white rice has only 0.6g of dietary fiber where couscous has 2.2g. See the calorie count here.

It's also fun and easy to pack the couscous full of fresh veggies and herbs to make a filling and flavorful dish. Try mixing up the vegetables and herbs to incorporate your favorite flavors. Add a green salad and dinner rolls and you have a meal!

Vegetable CouscousServes 2

1 zucchini or yellow squash

1 bell pepper, yellow or orange are mild in flavor

1 crushed garlic clove

1 lemon, juiced

1 cup dry couscous

1 Tbsp Italian parsley, chopped

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp salt

Olive oil

Cut vegetables into bite sized pieces. In a saute pan, cook vegetables in olive oil over medium heat until just softened, about 5 minutes. Turn heat down to low, add crushed garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Remove from heat.